Turning the tide in the war of Nottingham's independent shops

New start: Above, Tom Bennett, assistant manager with Antony Coates traditional butchers in Bramcote Lane, Wollaton, puts the finishing touches to their window display. They have taken over the shop from John Bodsworth, below left, who closed his business after 18 years.

IT was all change in Bramcote Lane. Out went butcher John Bodsworth saying he couldn't make the meat trade pay – and in came new tenants P Coates & Son saying they could.

According to director Antony Coates, the new butchers will deliver to Wollaton what they are already delivering in Alrewas, Borrowash and Tamworth. "We have ambitious plans for new products, as well as the traditional favourites to offer our new customers," he said.

Sounds straightforward enough. But the struggle of Mr Bodsworth shows that a butcher's life is not an easy one – he shut up shop after 18 years, with the loss of four jobs, blaming supermarket competition and a rise in rental costs.

Other meat retailers in Greater Nottingham have shut recently without the prospect of other butchers taking over the shops. They include MB & R Woodcock, in Kimberley, and George Hogg, in Beeston.

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Five years ago independent UK butchers were closing at the rate of 23 a week, with the total number of businesses falling from 9,000 to 7,000 during the first decade of the century.

But there are signs that the decline in the trade may be flattening out – a change that may have begun with last winter's meat adulteration scandals when several supermarket processed beef products were found to contain horse meat and, in one case, pork.

Following the scandals, independent butchers reported an immediate upsurge in sales – and the benefit is continuing, says Aspley butcher Gary Kemp.

"More people are more aware of what they are eating and what they want to eat," said Mr Kemp, who runs his shop with his wife and business partner Christine.

"The horse meat scandal caused many people to think about where their meat came from, and we try to source locally as much as possible – pork, lamb, even honey."

Christmas, of course, is the butcher's busiest time of year. Gary Kemp keeps a log of business from December 1 every year and this year trade is "about the same" as 12 months ago.

The business will shift 350 turkeys this year, many of them free-range bronze turkeys from the 40,000-bird Copas Christmas flock in Berkshire.

Based in Beechdale Road, the Kemps don't serve the wealthiest quarter of Nottingham but Christmas orders include requests for five- and even seven-bird roasts. An example of the latter, created to feed 20 people, will cost about £65 – although you'll pay more than that (about £75) for a 16lb free-range turkey direct from Croxton Kerrial farmers W E Botterill & Son.

The Kemps believe they will be handing a long-term viable business to their son Ian in a few years' time.

"There is a future in this trade provided you do it properly and provided you give good service," said Gary Kemp. "You need your customers to trust you."

Unlike the Kemps, Netherfield butcher Karl Robinson, who took over Robinson's of Victoria Road from his father, doubts if his three children will want to take on the business.

Even so, and in spite of the prospect of Sainsbury's joining Morrisons, Lidl and the Co-op in his parish, Mr Robinson agrees that independent butchers have a future.

"As far as supermarket competition is concerned, the damage has already been done," he says. "If anything, a new supermarket will take customers away from the others."

In the next three weeks, he expects to see all three of his customer types.

"We get the all-year-round customers, then the ones we see more of in November and December and then the one-off customers who buy their Christmas meat and you don't see them again."

With an eye on long-term loyalty, the independent trade is working on Britain's young meat-eaters.

Organisers of next March's National Butchers Week say: "The focus on independent retail, and particularly butchers, continues to grow as consumers look for increasing assurance and the personal touch of dealing with shorter supply chains.

"The 2014 campaign will see the focus shift on to younger consumers and young families and how butchers can make themselves more visible to a consumer generation that is used to shopping online and in the supermarkets."

Confidence in the trade was expressed at this year's Association of Independent Meat Suppliers' annual conference by Patrick Wall, associate professor of public health at University College Dublin.

He said sales rose after the horse meat scandal as consumers flocked to reliable sources and local butchers should build on that trust.

His business will sell 200 turkeys this Christmas and, like Gary Kemp, he reports orders at the same level as 2012.

"The horse meat scandal was definitely a factor and we got a lot more customers, especially younger ones," said Mr Pusztai. "With something like this, people tend to go ballistic for a month and then forget all about it. What was different this time is that people felt they had been lied to.

"We have an open-door policy at our shop and you are welcome to see what goes on at the back. I'm proud of that. You have to be able to trust your butcher."